Sports fanatics in Francistown will soon have an exciting new playground to try out, with Sunshine Plaza starting work on a P3.5 million multi-purpose facility.
The state-of-the-art sports hub will be located beside the mall, known to locals as Marang Spar, with a groundbreaking ceremony completed on Monday.
In total, the centre, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) undertaking by the mall’s owners, will house six sports, including: five-a-side football, tag rugby, two padel courts, two pickle ball Courts, action cricket and action netball.
KwikTurf Sport boss, Gareth Matthews, whose company are charged with building the venue, reveled the pickle courts would be completed by the end of September, while padel, the fastest growing sport in Africa, and football will be ready for action by early December.
As for cricket and netball, the target is next March.
“Bringing leisure and social sport to the community, corporate, and juniors is the basis of our centers. We aim to add family and the values that come with a family centric centre. Sport continues to see growth in Botswana, and we aim to lead the way with the needs of our community when it comes to leisure sport,” said Matthews, whose company helped build the football pitch at Molapo Crossing in Gaborone.
For his part, Francistown Mayor, Godisang Radisigo praised Sunshine Plaza’s owners for taking their CSR seriously.
He is confident the facility will bring to life more community-based events in Francistown, something that’s been lacking in the recent years.
“There will be a local five-a-side where people and companies can join and local Francistown based companies will have a great chance for exposure by sponsoring this local league,” said the second city’s first citizen.
For his part, Sunshine Plaza Director, Shyam Sreekaram (see Meet the Boss, pg 3A) voiced his hope that the venue will bring investments, employment and entertainment to Ghetto.
“These are the things that have been in Gaborone and one would wonder why they are not in Francistown. With the help of Francistown Council, we thought about it for the last several years and finally we are bringing it here,” declared Sreekaram.
